Wrong Turning: This is not Parc fermé

The Porsche 917/LH (Lang Heck) long tail, designed for the 240 mph Mulsanne Straight of Le Mans, made famous (in shorter tail guise) by Steve McQueen in his 1971 film Le Mans.

But it looks completely out of place sandwiched between a Ford Edge and Toyota Minivan in this car park underneath the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Amelia Island, Florida.

Car & Driver magazine tweeted a picture from the New York Auto Show this morning, showing the same car in a more appropriate setting.

As one of the grandees of motor racing history, it looks so small and ‘insignificant’ as it waits to be displayed at the 2012 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance.

Borrowed from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, this particular car was entered in Le Mans by the Salzburg team driven by Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens Jr. and set pole with an average speed of 242 kph.

What makes the photo so intriguing is the juxtaposition of race car, which screams pure unadulterated speed, adjacent to the very antithesis of performance – the Crossover and People Carrier.

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As is true of the next picture.

Seeing a Ferrari parked next to such ordinary vehicles in Maranello is not particularly noteworthy, but when it’s a Scuderia Ferrari Formula One car, the contrast could not be greater.

The images were tweeted on the team’s official @InsideFerrari account following Fernando Alonso’s win in Malaysia, catching the team in a particularly ‘playful’ mood..